PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE bioresources.com Wood and Lumber Properties of Larix gmelinii var. olgensis Planted in Japan Futoshi Ishiguri,a,* Taiichi Iki,b Kouhei Otsuka,c Yusuke Takahashi,a Ikumi Nezu,a Bayasaa Tumenjargal,a,d,e Jyunichi Ohshima,a and Shinso Yokota a In order to promote plantation establishment of Larix gmelinii var. olgensis (syn. L. olgensis A. Henry), a 'near threatened' species, the wood and lumber properties were preliminary investigated for five trees from two clones of 57-year-old trees planted in Japan. The mean value of dynamic Young's modulus of logs was 10.16 GPa. The mean values of annual ring width, latewood percentage, basic density, MOE, and MOR of five sample trees were 2.1 mm, 29.3%, 0.47 g•cm-3, 8.06 GPa, and 60.4 MPa, respectively. In addition, the MOE and MOR of 2 by 4 lumber were 10.43 GPa and 42.4 MPa, respectively. These values were similar to those obtained from other Larix species. Thus, construction lumber could be produced from the wood from plantation grown L. gmelinii var. olgensis. Keywords: Larix gmelinii var. olgensis; Annual ring width; Latewood percentage; Basic density; Bending property Contact information: a: School of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya 321-8505, Japan; b: Tohoku Regional Breeding Office, Forest Tree Breeding Center, Forest and Forest Products Research Institute, Takizawa, Iwate 020-0621, Japan; c: Tochigi Prefectural Forestry Center, Utsunomiya 321-2105, Japan; d: United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan; e: Research and Training Institute for Forestry and Wood Industry, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; * Corresponding author:
[email protected] INTRODUCTION Larix gmelinii var.